What you've all been waiting for - more baby pictures! Also I realized I forgot to tell the vital statistics! Asher weighed 8 lbs, 4 oz. That's a quarter pound MORE than Gregory! He was 20 1/4 inches long, the same as Greg. If you didn't catch it way back when, his full name is Asher Everett Fix. Asher is a Hebrew name meaning "Happy (or) Blessed", and is the name of one of the sons of Jacob in the Bible. Everett has Germanic and English origins, and means "Strong as a wild boar." Happy, Blessed, and Strong - we hope so!
The last few days have been rather exciting at our house.
On Wednesday afternoon, Gregory went for his annual checkup at the doctor. He weighed 26.6 lbs and was 35 inches tall. He is about 5th percentile for his age! Hey, somebody has to be! He also had some blood drawn to check for lead levels, etc. He did not think that was very fun, and still won't let us take the bandage off... Oh well, it'll fall off eventually!
Gregory celebrated his third birthday on Thursday. He really enjoyed opening presents and playing with his new things: some books from Grandma Bonnie, mini Bilibos from Auntie Kayla, and a tutu (Vikings colors, of course) and a giant floor keyboard from Mommy and Daddy.
On Friday morning, a package from Grandma Mary and Grandpa Nick arrived. Gregory loved the ViewMaster, plastic bugs, Tu-tok-a-nula book, and CD. Then we got ready to head out for the day. Our Attachment Parenting group here in the Twin Cities is very active, and this weekend was their camping trip. Being close to the end of my pregnancy, we opted not to actually camp, but the site was only about 10 mins away, so it was easy to go hang out. We spent a lot of the day on Friday there, came home for nap and dinner, and went back to play a little more and have S'mores in the evening.
That morning, I had (TMI warning!) lost some of my mucous plug, but nothing else new was really going on and being two weeks before my due date, I really didn't think too much of it. Well when we got home from the camping site I really was getting a bit uncomfortable. I couldn't really sleep and by about 11:30 I was getting up to the bathroom quite a lot. Dan said twice that maybe we should call the midwife, but it wasn't until about 12:30 that I really started considering calling someone. By then I was really having contractions, feeling shaky and nauseous and making labor noises. I called my doula, Janine, at 1 and told her I wasn't sure if I was really going to have the baby tonight. She decided to come over. Shortly thereafter we also called the midwife, Clare. She headed over too. Interestingly, neither of them had gone to bed yet!
Labor progressed slowly, contractions seemed far apart, but strong, and I was feeling normal in between them. There would be a short one, a little harder one, and then a few big ones in a row that sent me retreating to the bathroom. Pretty soon our other midwife, Emme, arrived. I felt bad that I had all these people out of bed waiting for me and it didn't seem to be going anywhere. After all, there had been many lighthearted comments about a one-hour labor during our prenatal visits. Usually second babies come quicker than the first, and Gregory only took a little over 3 hours... So much for that theory! By 3:30, Dan and I were getting pretty darn tired. I was just so sleepy and things were going really slow. We just rested in between contractions and actually got some sleep. When the sun started coming up, seemed like things started to pick up again a little. Gregory woke up and started doing his thing, and he brought a lot of energy. I sat in the bath tub for a little while to try to relax, and while it was nice, it didn't really help move things along. We all had a chat and figured the baby must be in a strange position. Emme and Janine felt my tummy during a contraction and they thought they might be feeling a shoulder above my pubic bone. Clare and Emme thought an inversion (going upside down) would be good, followed by lunges. At that point, I was willing to try it, knowing it would make everything hurt worse, but also knowing that we had to go there to get the baby unstuck. Well it worked! By halfway through the lunges, there was definite progress. My body started pushing hard. Though I had been leaking fluid for a while, there was a big pop and gush. We were in the carpeted living room so thank goodness the midwives had laid down plenty of waterproof pads! I was kind of standing up, holding onto Dan for support, but as the baby's head came down, it felt like I didn't have enough room for him to get out. I asked them to help me down to a knee. With another contraction or two, the head was born. Another one, and he was here! It was 8:10 am. He cried a little right away and I sat down on the floor with him. Emme, then Janine sat behind me for support.
I really still could not believe he was born already! He was so cute, looked a bit like Gregory did, and was surprisingly chubby for being two weeks early. Dan didn't think he looked as big as Greg was. His hair looked dark, but seems like it always does until it gets washed, which we still haven't done! I think he has a dimple on the right too, but I've only seen it a couple times.
Aside from being significantly longer than my first labor, this time also seemed a lot harder. I think a lot of it was mental. I just didn't feel ready. We had planned on having a birth pool set up ahead of time, but we didn't even have it in the house yet. Our water was all rusty from some plumbing work we had done earlier in the week, so even if we had set up a pool, I am not sure we would have used it with the rusty water anyway! None of our support people (i.e., Grandmas!) for Gregory were in town yet. So I guess I was just not mentally ready to have the baby, but he had other ideas. Much of the beginning of labor felt like a tug of war between my head and my body. I wasn't really committed. Even when I cut off the yarn from my Blessingway and said I was committed, I didn't really feel like it in my heart. I think it wasn't until the morning, when I was so tired, I just couldn't really fight it anymore, I gave up, stopped thinking, and started just doing what I was told! I don't know that it could have been any other way. This baby had positioning issues throughout the whole pregnancy, which I had done a lot of bodywork to try to correct. He just had his own needs, his own way he needed to come out, which was not the easiest way. I hope that if that is a character trait, that he just does things his own unconventional, yet ultimately successful way, not necessarily the "hard way" in life! I am quite sure that if I would have been in the hospital with an epidural, I would have ended up with a c-section. But with the great support I had at home, we were able to get through it. I hope I can be that kind of support for Asher as he grows, to help him get through things and not end up scarred!
Well, its only been a day and a half, but we are all completely in love with our new little guy. He nurses like a champ already. We decided not to cut the umbilical cord, for no other reason than that I didn't feel like it. We're putting salt and lavender on the placenta and the cord is drying out and will probably fall off tomorrow or the next day. We are staying in bed, except for bathroom breaks, another difference from Gregory's birth, when we were up and going out right away. I tell ya, babymooning in bed is such the way to go! However, this might be the only time that I do regret not having a TV in the bedroom! Poor Dan has been trying to keep up with Gregory until Grandma Bonnie arrives tomorrow afternoon. Greg has been acting a little nutty, which I am sure is to be expected. He is just so loud and rowdy...but he really adores Asher, wants to be near him, give him hugs and kisses, and bring him clothes, toys and books. Here are some pictures for now, and we'll keep adding more as the days go on!
We are on the final countdown before the new baby arrives. The infant car seat is installed in the van, the diapers are all stocked in the dresser, the birth kit is assembled. Our weekly check-ups with our midwife team continue to go great - baby is healthy, mommy is healthy. Mommy is also getting really uncomfortable! However, a weekly regiment of chiropractic adjustments and massages have been helping a lot!
On Saturday night, my wonderful friend and doula, Janine, along with our friend Allison, hosted a Blessingway for me. A Blessingway is a different kind of baby shower. Instead of bringing presents and playing silly games, guests bring special food, a bead for a necklace, and share a lot of good wishes and good energy for the birthing mom. Its a time for the community of women to come together to support her and to honor the milestone in her life. There were a lot of beautiful rituals, starting with a welcome chant and sage-incense cleansing of the house, which is meant to clear away negative energy. I was crowned with a flower wreath, then we shared a meal of foods that reminded each woman of her own mom, family, or comfort. The bead necklace is made up of beads chosen by each woman for the mom, for her to wear or have in her space during her birth. Guests also wrote intentions on cloth squares, which will be made into prayer-flags to hang up in the birth space as well. We did a really wonderful ceremony of releasing fears, where each person was able to express a fear to be released by sprinkling sage on a flame. Then we had a yarn ceremony, tying us all to each other in a web of support. Everyone will wear their red yarn bracelets until the baby is born. Much pampering ensued, including a shoulder massage, foot washing and massage, hair brushing and braiding, and henna design on the belly. We had plenty of henna left, so everyone else got a small design too! I can't express how loved and supported I felt being the center of all this amazing feminine attention! Its amazing to be part of a community that takes care of each other this way!
Photography by Allison Kuznia
Gregory had fun playing with my flower crown too!
Sunday morning we had a photographer come over to do some maternity photos. It was a little damp and muddy, but we made the best of it! Its been hard for me to take a lot of pictures of myself this pregnancy, partly because I'm always chasing Gregory, and partly because I am a lot bigger this time and its hard to see! But Gabby managed to make me feel beautiful. I think of it as documenting the first stage in a series of upcoming changes - waiting, birthing, getting to know our new baby...its a transition process into a new phase of our lives.
Photography by Gabby Hagelstrom
This Thursday will be Gregory's 3rd birthday! I can't believe my baby is such a big boy, and we have a few special little things planned for him, which I'll update afterwards! It's great to have a chance to spoil him and give him a lot of attention right before the new baby comes! He also has a Dr checkup and his first trip to the Dentist coming up, so there will be a lot to share!
Here's some pics from this spring. We've been keeping busy, going to a lot of playgroups and otherwise entertaining ourselves. We have a nice little routine of taking it easy in the early morning, heading out to play, and napping after lunch. Gregory has a lot of friends that he enjoys seeing regularly at playgroups. I enjoy the company of their moms too! It is a real blessing to have found a wonderful community of friends here, and we are starting to feel like we really belong. I can't believe its been almost a year since we moved here!
We are definitely enjoying the Minnesota spring weather - we have had a nice long period of mild weather here. Its very different than Omaha, where it seemed to turn from cold to hot overnight. We went to some outdoor things as soon as it was tolerable to be outside, like the zoo. Dan was pretty busy studying for his exam at the end of April, but we stole some quality time when we got the chance... We are very much appreciating all his free time now that the exam is over!
As the weather has warmed up, we have spent more and more time playing outside, of course!
We visited the Minnesota Children's Museum for the first time. It is much bigger than Omaha's, and also geared for kids a bit older than Gregory. There were still plenty of things he enjoyed, but there were also a lot of things that were over his head, or even scary, like the dinosaur exhibit! I don't think we'll be getting a membership there for a few more years, but we'll probably go every once in a while if our friends are going...
We had a quiet Easter weekend at home, just enjoying each other. We went to a neighborhood Egg Hunt, complete with a petting zoo. Gregory thought that was pretty neat. He had a good time gorging on his Easter Basket goodies too... As you'll see, its a little hard getting nice pictures of him any more - he really hams it up...at least he is having fun!
I am sure there are more pictures on the camera just waiting to be downloaded, so hopefully I'll be able to get to them soon. Need to be all caught up before the baby comes...6 more weeks! Look forward to more frequent updates after that!
Gregory has been doing a lot of growing up lately, experiencing a major phase of motor skill development. Maybe its just because its been such a long time since the big skill developments of the first year, but I am just astounded every day at the things he is suddenly doing! He is climbing on everything, jumping off of said things, and hopping, twirling, somersaulting, and otherwise flailing all over the place! He does frog leaps, gets quite a bit of air on his hopping, and experiments with balancing on one foot. He is also constantly dancing, even imitating some dances he has seen on TV, like ballet! He is getting much better at using a spoon to eat things like cereal with milk, without making such a huge mess. He has an increased interest in coloring and drawing, going from just scribbling without regard, to trying to actually color in the picture on the coloring book page. Perhaps one of the most amazing things to me was when he grabbed a crayon and a blank paper this last week and drew something, saying "This is a G." Sure enough, it was actually a G, though backwards!! Incredible! I have never attempted to teach him to write, but of course we do show him the letters and his name, etc. Yesterday he was drawing reasonable semblances of spiderwebs. I can't wait to see what he draws next! He's drawing recognizable pictures - WHAT!?!
Another major accomplishment is that he suddenly is able to keep himself dry during sleeping times. This happened spontaneously when we visited Omaha at the end of Feb. He did not dirty a diaper or have an accident on the entire 5 day/4 night trip! He has been in regular undies during the day for a few months now, but today we took him to buy some "big boy nighttime underwear" aka padded training undies to be worn with a wool cover at night, just in case. Goodbye diapers, at least for a few months! There is a part of me that thinks surely he will regress any day now, but then again, considering all the other major leaps lately, maybe not!
Another fun thing is that Gregory has been showing increasing interest in his baby brother. He loves to look at pictures of developing babies in a couple of books we have. He often asks me if he can feel the baby kicking, and I think that just the other night he actually did feel a little kick! He loves to hug and kiss my belly and talk to Asher through my belly button. He will tell anyone who asks that his baby brother Asher is inside Mommy's tummy, and when he comes out he will share the milkies with him! He is down to nursing only once or twice a day for only about a minute at a time, which is just fine with me! He might increase again once the milk comes back, and that will be fine too! He has also been pretending to nurse all of his dolls lately, which is too cute. He has been paying more attention to the babies at our playgroups, and is always very sweet, touching their cheeks and noses so gently, and giving them hugs. He is going to be a wonderful big brother!
I guess there has been one downside to all this growth - seems that whatever level of impulse control he had before (and it wasn't much) is completely gone! Or maybe its just that since he is using his body in all these new ways, he is thinking of lots of new and impulsive things to try. Things like hitting other kids, throwing stuff, dumping things out, banging on everything in sight, and making really loud irritating noises. Ah, to be two and a half... This too shall pass, right!?!
Finally getting up the motivation to go through them all!
Gregory and I went out to CA a week before Dan, so we went on many adventures to entertain ourselves and enjoy the nice weather! He loved feeding the fish at the Japanese Gardens, feeding ducks at El Dorado Park, and seeing all the animals and riding the rides at the Santa Ana Zoo. We actually repeated a couple of these fun free things once Daddy joined us.
We got a chance to spend time with all the Aunties and Uncle Benny, hanging out, making music, and checking out the town...
When Dan came, we went to an amazing new children's museum called Pretend City. It was pretty awesome!
Christmas Eve was really fun at Aunt Vicky's house with all the favorite traditions. Gregory was really into it this year! We tried to help him turn his focus from getting presents to giving presents by having him help with package management and distribution! He really did love his gifts, though, and wanted to stop and play with each thing so we had to remind him to finish opening the rest first! He is still in love with all the new fun things he got - our family does such a great job spoiling, eh, I mean, shopping for him! As always, we concluded the evening with our caroling boat ride. I included a couple of videos so you can experience it a little, its really very dark without the camera flash, the lights outside are awesome, and this year Gregory really got into the singing too...the kid has a good ear and is a quick study on lyrics too. He still breaks out in a round of Jingle Bells every now and then!
Christmas morning was another round at Grandma Mary and Grandpa Nick's house, of course with stockings and more presents, and a fabulous breakfast!
And for Grandma Mary's birthday we all went to Disneyland. Gregory remembered a lot from when we went in June, and we got the chance to do some things we didn't do then, like riding It's a Small World and meeting some of the characters. Many small kids are afraid but Gregory went right up and got hugs from all his favorites, especially Mickey. I was amazed! He wore his First Trip to Disneyland shirt, even though it was his second time, and he also got his first set of embroidered Mickey ears... I couldn't believe how choked up I got when he got so excited to see Sleeping Beauty's Castle light up at dusk...I maintain its because of my hormones... We did brave the Pirates ride, which he thought was ok but kinda scary, and the Haunted Mansion, which was definitely too scary! We'll skip that one next time for sure. Seems like I can't find a lot of pictures I remember taking, but maybe they were on someone else's camera?? Anyway, we had a fabulous time and it was so fun to share it with Dan this time! We are already talking about when we will get to go again. If at all possible, I think this might become another Christmastime tradition!
Here are some videos from Disneyland too, though I can't actually embed them because they are on Auntie Audrey's page...go watch, though, they are fun! http://www.youtube.com/user/mstruthchaser#p/u
We had to say our goodbyes a little earlier than usual this year, because we had to get back to the midwest to go to Fargo for a very special New Year's event, the baptism of Gilbert, the son of Patrick and Keri, who are Gregory's godparents. Dan and I were honored to be Gilbert's godparents, so I guess that makes them godbrothers! Grandpa Mike actually officiated the ceremony, and he and Grandma Coralie brought even more presents! Patrick, Keri and Gilbert stayed overnight with us on their way home to Chicago, but we wish they could have stayed longer! Gilbert is the sweetest little guy! It was a wonderful way to wrap up the holidays!
It has actually been over a month since the holidays were over and I have gotten out the camera a little bit since then...but this post has fried my brain, so the rest will have to wait!
Two little guys in our family! I think it will be so nice to have brothers, though admittedly I was a tiny bit disappointed that it wasn't a girl. That's ok, maybe there will be another chance for that someday!
We are 95% sure on the name: Asher Everett Fix
Also the ultrasound did not show any abnormalities so it seems he is healthy and there should be no issues going ahead with our plan to birth at home. The midwives we chose are so wonderful and I am enjoying doing a little prenatal yoga. We took a little childbirth class taught by our friend Janine, which was fun and it was nice to bond with some other couples who are also planning home births. From here on out, its just about trying to eat better, exercise more, and grow little Asher until he's ready to come out!
I'm a mom, biologist, birth activist, doula, and aspiring midwife. I'm getting crunchier all the time, and I love dogs, Montessori, ecological eating, and theater, among many other things. My husband is an adorable math nerd, and my son is a firecracker. My new little guy is the sweetest little pea I've ever seen!
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Eastern Bluebird Purple Finch American Robin Blue Grosbeak Dickcissel American Goldfinch Northern Cardinal Red-Headed Woodpecker Mountain Bluebird Cedar Waxwing Brown Thrasher
